Mel Gibson lines up comedy role

The 'Beaver' star has been approached to join the ensemble cast including Keifer Sutherland, Gerard Depardieu, Til Schweiger, Thomas Jane, Eric Cantona, Johnny Hallyday and Jon Lovitz in the movie about a group of Paris burglars who inadvertently steal a rare coin belonging to a gangster.

Brad Mirman is set to direct while Richard Rionda del Castro and Gilles Thompson will produce and Patricia Eberle has been lined up as executive producer.

Filming on 'Sleight of Hand' will start filming in Paris in July.

Mel is currently attending the Cannes Film Festival to promote his latest movie 'The Beaver' which director Jodie Foster claims had a "therapeutic" effect on him after being accused of domestic violence by ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva last year.

She said: "Anything that you do that you obsess about and think about and give that much to for six months of your life in his case allows you to look deeper at yourself and the people around you and the effect of what you do and has to have some kind of therapeutic, cathartic end.

"I know that he is incredibly proud of the movie and I think that he is proud of what he's shown and I think he wants people to see that side of him and he's an incredibly private man so what he shows on screen is deep as you could possibly get."